A contemporary kitchen on a slim budget.

A decrepit galley kitchen in a 1970s row house that had been purchased sight unseen—and what a sight it was. Fake exposed brick on the walls and fluorescent box lighting made the approximately 10 1/2-by-12 1/2-foot L-shape space feel even smaller. A dishwasher had leaked, damaging the white vinyl floor tiles and rotting the subfloor. Everything from the outdated dark oak cabinets to the maple-look laminate countertops had to go.

Friends helped him rip out the flooring, subfloor, and the "brick"-faced drywall. While this didn't gain any square footage, replacing the box lighting with recessed can fixtures did yield a few inches overhead. To brighten the space, Maynard chose a stainless steel range, vent hood, and dishwasher; their reflective surfaces bounce light throughout the room from the kitchen's one saving grace—a pair of windows (not shown), spanning 7 feet 4 inches. To keep all that metal from making the space look cold, he used one of those architect's tricks and tempered the steely stainless with the warmth of wood, installing 8-inch-plank oak-look laminate flooring and real oak butcher-block countertops. Oak is durable, and the once-a-month oiling it requires to prevent drying out is something Maynard can handle.

"I try to approach materials the way an architect would," Maynard says. For him, that means using inexpensive products that deliver a big impact. Instead of settling for factory-standard hardware, for instance, he selected longer, more dramatic, brushed stainless steel pulls for the white medium-density fiberboard base cabinets and those above the range. The cabinets over the sink were outfitted with aluminum-framed glass doors; he wasn't daunted by the thought of keeping the contents neat. Rather than have the base cabinets touch the floor, Maynard opted for modern, stainless steel legs to make them appear as if they're hovering; the space beneath gives the room an airy feel.

To further offset the stainless touches, Maynard added a backsplash of white rectangular ceramic tiles. He also chose white for the curtains, after briefly considering keeping the windows bare. (They made his kitchen shine; covering them up seemed counterintuitive.) Friends had convinced him he would need the privacy, so Maynard agreed to dress the windows with a cotton curtain clipped to a tension wire. "I could have used a traditional rod, but a stainless steel cable pulled tight is much more interesting," he says. It's also incredibly affordable: The window system, which consists of clips that secure the curtain to the cable and hardware that attaches the entire unit to the wall, cost $40.

Lay traditional wood flooring in the adjoining living room. "I looked at bamboo and all the other cool materials I've written about—rubber, cork, even palm," says Maynard. All proved too costly. Then he recalled an architect who had used plain plywood for flooring, and decided that he was willing to try it out, too. So he purchased 4-by-8-foot oak sheets from a home center, secured them with Liquid Nails adhesive ("a contractor's best friend," says Maynard), and nailed them in using exposed square-head screws. A light sanding and five coats of polyurethane later, the floor was ready to show off. "Everyone who comes through the house loves it," he says.

Budget Breakdown

Appliances

GE stainless steel appliances $2,495

Broan stainless steel vent hood $148

Elkay Signature sink $94

American Standard Reliant pullout faucet in chrome $99

In-Sink-erator Badger garbage disposal $63

Materials

American Olean Ceramic Tiles $40

Behr Ceiling and trim paint in White $40

Behr Wall paint in Sand Fossil $22

Ikea Lansa Pulls $44

Lumber Liquidators French oak laminate flooring $450

IKEA hardware, tension wire, clips, and curtain $40

IKEA oak countertops $218

IKEA Adel cabinets with Aviskt doors $1,319

IKEA Capita cabinet legs $40

Molding $16

Labor

Waste hauling $100

Electrician $300

Total $5,528

Strut Your Stuff

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